MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit

Many different things affect how healthy we are throughout our lives, and how long we can expect to live. These things include our genes, our behaviour and, most importantly, the social, political and environmental conditions in which we are born, grow up, live, work and age. These conditions are not the same for everyone and there are big differences in health between people who are well off and those who are not, and on average the richest live many more years in good health than the poorest. 

Our new systems science programme seeks to understand what policy makers can do to help people live healthier for longer, and how we can address the unfair gap between rich and poor. Systems science is a collection of methods and approaches for understanding complex relationships between things and how they develop over time. It is often used in the natural sciences such as for understanding eco systems or the weather, but we believe it can also help us understand how social, environmental and political conditions (for example economic recessions, climate change) influence health and wellbeing.

Our programme will seek to develop a group of researchers with the necessary topic and methods skills and then work with research partners and policy makers to address one of the key challenges of our times – how we can live healthier for longer.

If you are interested in collaborating or maybe joining the team – please get in touch for a chat! You can contact Professor Petra Meier by email or via twitter @pmeierprof.